COVID positive case prompts Glen Lake to close fourth grade, kindergarten classes
From staff reports
One COVID-19-positive test of a staff member at Glen Lake Community Schools has prompted the school to temporarily close three sections of Fourth Grade and one section of Kindergarten, superintendent Jon Hoover told the Glen Arbor Sun today. The school learned of the case at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and announced to the school community that day.
This is the first reported positive case of the Coronavirus this year at Glen Lake.
Since Fourth Grade teachers rotate by subject, all three sections will move to online learning from home until Wednesday, November 4, which is 14 days after the last class contact with the COVID-positive staff member, on Tuesday, October 20. The staff member in question has a child in kindergarten, who is considered a “probable case” of COVID. As a result, that student’s section of kindergarten will also move to online learning. (Two other sections of kindergarten will continue in school uninterrupted.)
The COVID-positive staff member is symptomatic, and resting at home. That staff member was taken out of school once symptoms arose, but the positive test didn’t arrive until Saturday. Glen Lake School policy is that any teacher with symptoms stay home and test.
“We’re pretty well trained in our efforts to use online communication in the virtual classroom,” said Hoover. “The kids are pretty adept at using programs like Seesaw and Google Classroom and plugging in via video.”
The fourth graders and kindergartners whose classes were temporarily canceled did not attend school on Monday. Instead, their parents picked up Google Chromebooks on Monday afternoon to use during the next two weeks. Those who requested school lunches were supplied with bagged meals for the remainder of the week.
After closing school and going virtual when the pandemic arrived and the state shut down in March, Glen Lake’s staff has worked hard to prepare for this kind of scenario.
“This is a first for us,” said Hoover. “We pray it’s the last. But we have a plan, and we’ve been working the plan. We’ve been preparing, not just for small-class quarantines, but what to do in case we have to quarantine the whole school. We have exercises in place in case we have to go 100-percent virtual.”
Cases rising in region, state, nation and world
As the cold weather arrives and human activity moves indoors, and people let down their guard, health officials worry that the long predicted “fall wave” of Coronavirus will take hold.
“Over the last week we’ve seen an uptick in the number of cases, and the number of schools impacted,” said Michelle Klein, director of personal health at the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department. “The important message is to continue to maintain social distancing and to wear masks.”
The Benzie-Leelanau Health Department reports 29 new cases since last Monday. In Grand Traverse County, which includes the population hub of Traverse City, cases have spiked with 48 new cases since Friday and 256 new cases since October 1.
Read our story, “The Things We Carry on Munson’s COVID Ward” which we published in our October 7 edition of the Sun.
Statewide, nearly 3,900 new confirmed Coronavirus cases were reported today as the recent rise in case counts has led to a steep rise in hospitalizations, reports Bridge Magazine. The cases, covering Sunday and Monday, pushed the seven-day average over 2,000, its highest level ever.
The state’s chief medical executive, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, issued a statement calling the numbers “alarming.”
“If rates continue like this, we risk overwhelming our hospitals and having many more Michiganders die,” Khaldun said.
Nationwide, cases are up a whopping 32 percent in the past 14 days, with new deaths up 12 percent, reports The New York Times.
